What Happens After Dandora? Kenya’s Green Transition Faces Its Hardest Test

For decades, thousands of Nairobi’s poorest residents have quietly carried out one of the city’s most important environmental services. Every day, informal waste pickers at Dandora sort, salvage and recover plastic, metal, paper, glass and electronic waste that would otherwise remain buried beneath one of Africa’s largest and oldest dumpsites. In doing so, they help sustain Nairobi’s recycling economy. Yet despite performing work that cities increasingly celebrate as part of the circular…